If trees could sing, what would they sound like?

WE ALREADY KNOW what trees would sound like if they could talk. Peter Jackson gave that secret away in the Lord of the Rings movies. But if they could play music, what might that be like?

Bartholomäus Traubeck, a 25-year-old German artist, converted a record player into a device that can “read” the rings from a cross-section of a tree. Instead of a normal needle, the player uses a PlayStation Eye that records information from the rings. It’s all then digitally processed to result in nature’s greatest hits.

I love trees. Ancient, majestic, grand, gnarly. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere without them. I hug them when I go into the forest. I’ve always wondered what stories they would tell if they could; they’ve seen and been through so much. Well, now I know.

“A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate
of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that
outputs piano music based on the year ring data. Those are analyzed for
their thickness and growth rate and are then mapped to a scale which is
again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark
to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for
the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and
hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this
ruleset very differently.”
Found at: http://www.creativeapplications.net/vvvv/years-vvvv-arduino/

Actually many do ‘sing.’ They hum. If the environment is
quiet enough, and you stand near them when they are in groups, they tend to do
this. I suspect that what you are hearing is turgor pressure in the trunk and
limbs. In some trees, like birch – think thinner trunks – one can feel the
pressure as well.

Here

Awesome idea, but not as romantic as it sounds. In order to see the rings, you have to cut down the tree… hmmm…